Johnny Chung Lee, a human-computer interaction researcher known for Wii Remote projects like head tracking and low-cost interactive whiteboards.
HN commenters point to his Wiimote head-tracking and whiteboard projects as inventive interface work, and some built the Smartboard themselves.
Nice! Here's the description:
What I did was rig it to track contours on the depth image, and attempt to pick out a rectangular object. Then, by using the detected location of the corners, I can apply it as a perspective transform to my laser projector. The end result is that the cardboard box I'm holding becomes a "virtual screen" that is tracked by the laser projection in real time and in perspective :)
Reminds me of Johnny Lee's awesome Projector-Based Location Discovery and Tracking work: http://johnnylee.net/projects/thesis/
Also, there seem to be a fair number of Kinect projects popping up nowadays. Is there a website to keep track of all this? If not, perhaps it would be worth someone's effort to start a blog on the topic...
See also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5QSclrIdlE , which is actually a product that you can buy, though I think it was never localized for the US.
Edit: Also, http://johnnylee.net/projects/wii/ , under "Head Tracking for Desktop VR Displays using the Wii Remote" (down a bit).
(Also, to be clear, I just mean these as interesting "see alsos". I am not saying "it's been done" (so what?) or "it doesn't work" (I have no direct experience to make a judgment). Nor am I saying anyone accused me otherwise. The iPad is still a potential interesting sweet spot for this tech.)
This is interesting. It's definitely a different take than the laser virtual keyboard or the Wii Remote. What sort of advantages does this have over hacking a Wii Remote? Is it more portable? Is it more sensitive? Arguably it's design would work better in a mobile environment. When I look at recent innovations in this sector (gestures/gyroscopes) I think the Wii is the product that's made the biggest impact on the industry and the first to (at least widely) release a product that does as advertised.
See http://johnnylee.net/projects/wii/
As gently as I can manage ...
At the end of the video is a URL for his website. It is http://johnnylee.net/
His website is pretty neat. It includes more of his Wii remote projects -- including his interactive whiteboard which I think is even more interesting -- and it includes a link to his academic pursuits.
Following the "Academics" link, you'll find that his thesis project is "Projector-Based Location Discovery and Tracking", which takes his whiteboard hobby a couple of steps further.
... or the various projects by Johnny Lee [1], using the then new wiimote in completely novel ways [2][3].
15 years later, I'm still surprised these proof-of-concepts didn't evolve into something more commercial.
[1] http://johnnylee.net/projects/wii/
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s5EvhHy7eQ
"- Johnny Lee and the ATAP-Project Tango Team"
Johnny Lee was the guy with the awesome Wii Controller demos back in 2007 (can't believe it's been that long).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw
edit: here's the full set of demos: http://johnnylee.net/projects/wii/ (also, I'm assuming it's the same guy, but his site says he's at Google now)